Condition of 3 explosion victims better

Three of the five people burned in the ice-fishing house explosion Sunday morning along Lake of the Woods have improved.

According to Kim Kaiser at Essentia Health in Duluth:

• Rodney Bolstad, 51, Hillsboro, N.D., has been upgraded from critical to fair condition at the burn intensive care unit.

• Jacob Bolstad, 28, East Grand Forks, has improved from critical condition to serious condition.

• Joel Bolstad, 19, Hillsboro, has improved from serious to fair condition.

Meanwhile, William Huotari, Fargo, remained in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, and Al Stokke, also of Fargo, remained in fair condition.

The five were injured at about 8 a.m. Sunday in an apparent propane explosion in a private ice-fishing house on the lake shore at Zippel Bay, north of Williams, Minn.

The blast blew out some windows and resulted in burn damage to about 50 percent of the structure, according to Lake of the Woods County Sheriff Gary Fish.

The men initially were taken to Lakewood Health Center in Baudette, Minn., before being airlifted to Duluth.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation by the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s office and the sheriff’s office.

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